The 10th National Organic Chemistry Academic Conference, which was hosted by SUSTech, was held in Shenzhen recently. More than 2,500 chemists from all over the country attended the event, during which Chuangchuang Li, an associate professor from the Department of Chemistry of SUSTech won the “Weishan Natural Product Synthesis Award” from the Chinese Chemical Society in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of natural product synthesis research. Chuangchuang Li became the first teacher of SUSTech to win an academic award given by the Chinese Chemical Society.
The “Weishan Natural Product Synthesis Award” was established in 2013 by the Chinese Chemical Society in commemoration of late academician Weishan Zhou, a famous chemist. The award aims to reward domestic scholars who have made outstanding contributions to natural product synthesis and to promote and pass on Mr. Zhou’s scientific spirit and excellent style of study. The award is given out every other year. The previous winners include Academician Yongqiang Tu from Lanzhou University, Professor Zhen Yang from Peking University, Professor Xinshan Ye, and Professor Xiaoguang Lei, among many others.
The study on “Concise asymmetric total synthesis of colchicine” by Li’s group has been one of the works which has had the most important international influence in the field of total synthesis of natural products in recent years. This award represents the recognition for Li’s outstanding contributions in the field.
Chuangchuang Li got his doctor’s degree from Peking University in 2006, under the guidance of Professor Zhen Yang, and went to The Scripps Research Institute to do his postdoctoral research in the same year, under the guidance of Professor Phil Baran. By the end of 2013, he joined SUSTech and has been engaged in the total synthesis of complex bioactive natural products. Till now, he has completely synthesized more than 50 challenging and bioactive natural products, 20 of which were synthesized for the first time in the world. Chuangchuang Li was recognized as Excellent Teacher of Shenzhen and is a Leading Talents of Guangdong Province. He won the First Prize of Shenzhen Natural Science Award in 2013, the National Outstanding Youth Fund in 2015, and was selected as the National Leading Talent of of Ministry of Science and Technology in 2017.
